Effectiveness of Chironomid Larvae in Compare to Other Fish Foods on Growth Parameters and Body Protein of Two Economically Important Fishes

With the increasing human population, the demand for healthy, nutritious but cheap food also increasing day by day. The product of aquaculture mainly fish is more efficient to improve global food security. Along with the seafood, the effort is going on for more production of freshwater fish. For that reason, proper growth and sufficient proximate principles in fish are essential with a low-cost but healthy fish diet. Trichogaster fasciata and, Heteropneustes fossilis were fed with fourth instar larvae of Chironomus striatipennis (F1), dry Tubifex (F2), and granular floating type aquarium fish food (F3) respectively to observe the nutritional effect of different fish meal. Fish fed with F1 showed effective food conversion ratio and specific growth rate in comparison to fish fed on F2 and F3 respectively. The average daily gain was 214.3 % and 47.61% respectively in two fish when fed with F1. Percent gain weight increased from 1.12 (7th day) to 15.03 (28th day) in T. fasciata and 1.497 (7th day) to 8.21 (28th day) in H. fossilis when fed on F1. The result also showed that the protein level was increased steadily in both fishes when fed with F1 in comparison to other foods. It may be concluded that live larvae of Chironomus striatipennis were more effective fish food than dry Tubifex and aquarium fish food. It is a natural organic fish food with a negligible wastage used for fish and keeps the culture medium clean and debris-free with an ecofriendly environment.